1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an imaging lens and an imaging apparatus. In particular, the present invention relates to an imaging lens appropriate for use in an in-vehicle camera, a camera for a mobile terminal, a surveillance camera, or the like using an imaging device, such as a CCD (Charge Coupled Device) and a CMOS (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor). Further, the present invention relates to an imaging apparatus including the imaging lens.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, the size of an imaging device, such as a CCD and a CMOS, became very small, and the resolution of the imaging device became very high. Consequently, the size of the body of imaging equipment including such an imaging device became small. Therefore, reduction in the size of an imaging lens to be mounted on the imaging equipment is also needed in addition to excellent optical performance of the imaging lens. Meanwhile, lenses mounted on an in-vehicle camera, a surveillance camera and the like need to be structurable in small size and at low cost, and to achieve a wide angle of view and high performance.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2005-221920 (Patent Document 1), Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2006-171597 (Patent Document 2), Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2006-349920 (Patent Document 3), Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2007-164079 (Patent Document 4), Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2007-249073 (Patent Document 5), Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2008-134494 (Patent Document 6), Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2010-243709 (Patent Document 7), Japanese Patent No. 2599312 (Patent Document 8), Specification of U.S. Pat. No. 7,023,628 (Patent Document 9), Specification of U.S. Pat. No. 7,768,719 (Patent Document 10), Specification of U.S. Pat. No. 7,933,078 (Patent Document 11), Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2010-160479 (Patent Document 12), Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2008-076716 (Patent Document 13), Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2009-092797 (Patent Document 14), Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2009-092798 (Patent Document 15), and Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2010-009028 (Patent Document 16) disclose lens systems consisting of six lenses. The lens system is usable in a camera on which a small-size CCD is mounted, and uses a plastic aspheric lens.